Unbundling Capterra 🪚
Capterra is an online marketplace helping people find the right software for their business.
“There are only two ways to make money in business: One is to bundle; the other is unbundle.” - Jim Barksdale
In this vein, it might be worth looking into unbundling Capterra.
The issue
The marketplace is amazing for potential customers searching for a specific category of software and compare different vendors.
But what if I don't even know what sort of software category I should be looking for?
Many of the problems people face are already solvable with a piece of software today, they just don't know it yet.
The idea
Capterra unbundled by industry.
For users to actually discover software categories (as opposed to simply searching for the solution they already had in mind) they need to see what other people in their industry actually use and appreciate.
These new, tiny Capterras would focus on a specific niche. When industry players from that niche come to the site, they see which of their problems others have managed to solve with new tools.
Game plan
Step 1: find out which tools companies use in a niche
Step 2: aggregate those tools in a directory
Step 3: promote the directory to people in the industry
Step 4: get reviews, add new tools, help people discover software
Step 5: charge a ton for vendors to list and feature their software
Industries and niches
Virtually any niche or industry could be unbundled from Capterra, as long as there are enough and specific software solutions around to warrant comparison.
But no worries. Most industries will still use a CMS or an email tool. And those more horizontally focused software providers will still want to reach your niche audience.
Niche ideas: bootstrappers, dentists, freelancers, gyms, events, podcasters, bloggers
Imo, tiny Capterras are perfect to build for Indie Hackers: likely familiar with a specific niche and its relevant tools, small TAM (so no VC competitors) and easy to run with a small team.
Examples
VC Stack: tools and resources for venture capital and angel investors
The Remote Stash: tools for remote work
automation.re: software for workflow automation
I've just recently started thinking about the app review space - how'd this project go Jan-Philiipp?
Apps are interesting because app stores already collect feedback from users. I'd say it is likely difficult to get users to rate apps outside of the Play Store / App Store.
Maybe there is a way to make it more specific, e.g. only users who are proven customers (to combat the bot problem) or a comparison of apps used for the same purpose (e.g. comparing different private messaging apps).
Yeah makes sense. I've been thinking about what a version of Capterra/G2 would look like for the indie community (so like you said, a niche) and started putting something basic together.
Using tweets for reviews seems to give a really authentic/candid perspective on the product, so now I'm talking to indie makers to see how they respond.
Looks super nice, good job! I would think that on Capterra/G2, traditional indie products are not super visible so it definitely makes sense to create a space for it. The only thing I would worry about is monetization. Are indie hackers willing to pay much for placements? Not sure.
Thanks! Yeah agreed - I'm not sure if it can be a business or not. I'd like to avoid the predatory practices of Capterra/G2. These are some of the thoughts I've had around monetisation:
Maybe there's some mixed bag of these that could turn into a business.
I'd say that is a really good approach worth testing out! :)
Nice article. So cool to see VCStack.io in there :)